Introduction

This guide is intended to provide a comprehensive description of the
encounter with Fel Lord Zakuun in Hellfire Citadel. It is targeted at anyone
who desires to understand the fight mechanics.

This guide is updated for World of Warcraft WoD 6.2.

Fel Lord Zakuun is a boss encounter in the Hellfire Citadel raid instance.
This single-phase fight requires excellent positioning and raid awareness if
you are to succeed, and it also features a number of unique and creative
mechanics.

About the Author

This guide is written and maintained by
Azortharion, a top Hunter with 6 years of raiding experience, who currently raids in Ðanish Terrace, a world top 20 guild.

1. General Information

1.1. LFR Difficulty

For the Looking for Raid version of the fight, we provide you with a special
LFR guide. This will tell you everything you need to know in order to complete the encounter, in a quick and concise way.

1.2. Normal, Heroic, and Mythic Difficulty

This main part of this guide covers both the Normal and Heroic versions of
the encounter, as far as mechanics and general strategy is concerned. The only
difference between these two modes is found in the tuning, with Heroic being
more difficult.

When we speak of extreme situations (such as the difficulty of a soft
enrage timer, or damage from a certain source being too high to survive), we
mostly refer to Heroic mode.

In addition to this, we have a specific Mythic mode section, where we present all the differences between Normal/Heroic and
Mythic, as well as the strategy to defeat the Mythic encounter.

1.3. Enrage Timer

We are not sure about the Normal/Heroic mode hard enrage timer, but it
appears to be at least 8 minutes. In any case, it should not pose problems
unless several of your raid members are already dead.

In Mythic mode, the fight has a hard enrage timer of 5 minutes and 30
seconds.

2. Overview of the Fight

Phases One and Two alternate for most of the fight. During this time, the
raid has to deal with Zakuun using a variety of abilities.

When Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phase One and Two
have finished, which ever happens first, Zakuun enters
Phase Three, at which point he uses all abilities from the previous two phases, becoming much more dangerous. This phase lasts until the end of the fight.

It is also worth mentioning that your raid's tanks will have to contend with
a special Shadow Realm, an alternate version of the room where your raid is
fighting Zakuun. Although this is an important part of the fight, it is not
very complex, mechanically.

3. Summing Things Up

In this section, we will very briefly summarise what the players belonging
to each of the three roles have to do during this fight. This is by no means
meant to provide sufficient information to master the encounter, and it is only
supposed to give you a very rough idea of what to watch out for.

3.4. Everyone

When targeted by Seed of Destruction, move as far away from everyone else
as possible, preferably in a corner of the room.

In Mythic mode, pay attention to assignments for groups to soak the
Rumbling Fissures, and do what is asked of you. In particular, this
means making sure to soak Rumbling Fissures at the right time, and to stack
next to the tank in order to be sent into the Shadow Realm.

4. Preliminary Mentions

Before discussing the different phases of the fight, there are two
important elements we must explain, namely the phases of the fight and
the Shadow Realm.

4.1. Phases of the Fight

At the beginning of the fight, Zakuun is Armed and will be using his axe
to attack your raid. When using the axe, Zakuun's melee attacks are slow, but
powerful.

After roughly 1.5 minutes, Zakuun enters Phase Two. He throws his axe on the
ground and becomes Disarmed. While disarmed, Zakuun attacks 30% faster. After
another 45 seconds, Zakuun picks up his axe and begins the initial Phase One
once again.

This cycle repeats until Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of
Phase One and Two have finished, which ever happens first. At this time, the
boss enters Phase Three, during which he uses his abilities from both previous phases. This lasts until he dies or until the raid
wipes.

4.2. The Shadow Realm and Latent Energy

The Shadow Realm is an important part of the Fel Lord Zakuun encounter. This
is an alternate version of the room in which the raid fights the boss. Only
tanks can access this realm throughout the fight (whenever they are hit by
Soul Cleave, one of Zakuun's abilities).

Tanks who are sent to the Shadow Realm return to the normal room
automatically after 15 seconds. When exiting the Shadow Realm, the tank gains
Invigorated, increasing their Mastery, Versatility, and Haste by 30% for 20
seconds. On Heroic mode, they also send out Wakes of Destruction in
several directions from the location where they reappear in the normal
realm.

Inside the Shadow Realm, there is nothing do to, initially. Tanks sit in
an empty room and wait to be sent back. Each time a tank leaves the Shadow
Realm, they spawn an add called Residual Energy in the Shadow
Realm.

Wake of Destruction sends out a number of purple waves that deal heavy Shadow
damage to anyone they come in contact with, debuffing them with Latent Energy.
Zakuun also uses this same ability during Phase One.

Rings of Destruction are rings that the Residual Energy adds create around
them, which travel outward fairly quickly, dealing moderate Shadow damage to
anyone struck by them, and applying the Latent Energy debuff. Rings of
Destruction can be avoided by jumping over them.

Residual Energy adds never despawn, which means that it will become increasingly
difficult to avoid the rings and waves in the Shadow Realm and that more and more adds
will spawn, eventually killing the tanks.

5. Phase One: Armed

Phase One lasts 1.5 minutes, after which time Zakuun will enter Phase Two.

5.1. Abilities

Latent Energy is a debuff that a number of abilities in the encounter can
apply on players. It increases the affected player's damage and
healing done by 30% for 1.5 minutes, and also causes players to take extra
damage from a number of abilities in the encounter.

Soul Cleave is an ability that Zakuun occasionally uses on his current tank.
It deals heavy Shadow damage in a single hit, and teleports the tank to the
Shadow Realm. Additionally, the tank gains the Cloven Soul debuff, which
increases their Shadow damage taken by 100% for 1.5 minutes.

Rumbling Fissures is an ability that Fel Lord Zakuun regularly uses. He
spawns a number of void zones on the ground that persist for a short time, or
until absorbed by raid members. If a Rumbling Fissure is not absorbed for
some time (we are not yet sure how long), a Fel Crystals spawns from it. These
are stationary NPCs that do not attack, but which deal low Fire damage to the
raid every second while they are alive. They cannot be damaged or killed.
Rumbling Fissures can be absorbed by having a raid member stand in them for 5
seconds. Doing so causes the fissure to despawn without creating a Fel Crystal,
and affects the raid member with the Latent Energy debuff. Note that
one Fel Crystal will always spawn each time Rumbling Fissures are created, even if they are all soaked. If all are soaked, then the Crystal will appear at the location of a random fissure.

Cavitation is an ability that Fel Lord Zakuun regularly uses. He throws
purple Wakes of Destruction waves towards random raid members, which deal
heavy Shadow damage. Players hit by this ability when they are already debuffed with latent Energy
trigger Unleashed Energy. The same Unleashed Energy is triggered if
a Wake of Destruction comes in contact with a Fel Crystal.

Befouled is an ability that Fel Lord Zakuun regularly targets a random raid
member with. It places a healing absorption shield on the target, which absorbs
a modest amount of healing. When the affected raid member has received enough
healing for the shield to fade, a Foul Explosion is triggered.

5.2. Strategy

The raid will also have to minimise the amount of Unleashed Energy explosions that happen.

5.2.1. Tanking Concerns

A tank switch must be performed for each Soul Cleave, as the tank who is
struck is sent to the Shadow Realm. It does not matter which tank enters the
Shadow Realm first, as there will be nothing to do that time, as no
Residual Energy will have spawned.

Eventually, Residual Energy adds will spawn inside the Shadow
Realm, caused by tanks returning to the normal realm. From here on, the objective is to
avoid Rings of Destruction and Wakes of Destruction, continuously cast by
the Residual Energy. In order to avoid Rings of Destruction, the tank must jump over the
ring's edge as it passes under them to avoid taking damage. Wakes of Destruction must simply be dodged.

As the fight goes on and tanks spawn more adds, it becomes increasingly
difficult for them to survive their 15-second trial in the Shadow Realm.

5.2.2. Positioning

For Phase One, we recommend having a loose spread of 6 yards around the
room. This will ensure that no additional players are hit by Foul Explosions,
and it will also minimise the chance of multiple players being struck by
Wakes of Destruction.

5.2.3. Handling the Mechanics

For Cavitation, avoid being struck by the Wakes of Destruction. Being
struck when already affected by the Latent Energy debuff almost
certainly results in death, so do not get hit more than once.
Avoiding the Wakes of Destruction is up to the
ability of individual raid members. That said, raid members who are not affected by Latent Energy will have to protect Fel Crystals from being hit by Wakes of Destruction, since this also triggers an explosion. On Heroic mode, you must pay attention to the Wakes of Destruction coming from the location where the tank
has re-entered the normal realm.

Raid members must absorb Rumbling Fissures by standing in them for 5 seconds in order to prevent any Fel Crystals from spawning.
Reliable players that are sure not to get themselves killed by being struck
with Wakes of Destruction, or further Rumbling Fissures, are the best choice
for this. Due to their spawn rate, however, it is likely that everyone will
have to absorb at least one Rumbling Fissure throughout the fight.

Once a player has absorbed a Rumbling Fissure, they must avoid
re-entering a Rumbling Fissure before 1.5 minutes. Doing so will trigger
Unleashed Energy because they are affected by Latent Energy.

All but one of the Rumbling Fissures that spawn each time must be soaked — as stated earlier, even if all the fissures are soaked, one
Fel Crystal will still spawn. Therefore, it is recommended to simply
not soak the fissure that is closest to the entrance, causing a Fel Crystal to
spawn there (since, as we said, if all the fissures are soaked, then the Crystal will spawn at the location of a random one).

Finally, as far as Befouled is concerned, players who are affected by this
debuff will simply have to be healed up until the healing absorption shield
disappears. This will unavoidably trigger a Foul Explosion, so these players
must make sure to be at least 6 yards away from other raid members.

6. Phase Two: Disarmed

Phase Two lasts for 45 seconds, after which Zakuun returns to Phase One.

6.1. Abilities

During Phase Two, Fel Lord Zakuun stops using any abilities from Phase One,
and instead has a very limited number of new abilities.

For the first 30 seconds of the phase, his axe (which he has thrown to the
ground) channels Fel Explosions. This deals heavy Fire damage to the
entire raid every second.

Heavy Handed is a buff that Zakuun has throughout Phase Two. It causes all
of his melee attacks to strike the closest player to him within 5 yards for the
same amount of damage dealt to the tank. If there is no other player within 5
yards, then the tank is hit twice.

Seed of Destruction is an ability that Zakuun frequently uses. He chooses
5 random raid members, and causes them to unleash 8 Wakes of Destruction all
around them after 5 seconds. Wakes of Destruction is the same as in
Phase One.

Zakuun also gains 30% haste during Phase Two.

6.2. Strategy

The main challenge of this phase is avoiding damage from Seed of Destruction.
When this ability is cast, the targeted players should attempt to
stand in separate corners of the room, as this will cause most of the
Wakes of Destruction that they create to harmlessly flow away outside the
room, as opposed to towards its center. Raid members who are not affected by
Latent Energy should try to intercept some of these Wakes of
Destruction, in order to prevent them from touching Fel Crystals or
other players affected by Latent Energy.

During this phase, Zakuun does not use Soul Cleave. However, since his melee
attacks all strike the tank and the closest target to Zakuun, we recommend that
that second tank stand on top of the first tank, as close to Zakuun as
possible.

As far as positioning is concerned, we recommend stacking up at a central spot
in the room, as heavy raid cooldowns will be needed to survive Fel Explosions.

7. Phase Three: Enrage

When Zakuun reaches 35% health, or when two cycles of Phase One and Two
have finished, which ever happens first, Zakuun
becomes Enraged. This phase lasts until the end of the fight.

7.1. Abilities

During this phase, Zakuun uses all abilities from the previous two
phases, except for Soul Cleave, meaning that tanks are no longer sent
to the Shadow Realm. The only other change is that Seed of Destruction has a
3-second duration, instead of a 5-second one.

7.2. Strategy

This is an extremely intense and chaotic phase, during which the raid will
have to perform most of the previous tasks while finishing Zakuun off as
quickly as possible. Most notably, Rumbling Fissures must be soaked,
and Wakes of Destruction must be avoided and intercepted (to prevent
them from hitting Fel Crystals), as the case may be.

8. When to use Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp

We recommend using Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp when Fel Lord Zakuun
enters Phase Three, as it is here that the most healing will be needed, and
this is also when the boss must die as quickly as possible.

9. When to use the Legendary Ring

We recommend that DPS players use the Legendary Ring when it is the most
beneficial to the raid. This will generally be on cooldown, as there are no
particular DPS requirements for this encounter. However, one usage should be
saved for when Fel Lord Zakuun uses Enrage, to get the phase over with
quicker.

We recommend that healers use their Legendary Ring for each time the
Fel Explosions is cast in Phase Two, and to save it for Phase Three.

Finally, we recommend that tank players use their Legendary Ring when they must
have to deal with Heavy Handed, during Phases Two and Three.

10. Learning the Fight

Learning Fel Lord Zakuun will largely be down to your tanks' and healers'
ability to perform very well, and perform duties that they may not be used to.
This is particularly true for tanks dealing with the Shadow Realm.

Phase Two is short, but exceptionally demanding in terms of healing done. It is
important that as few raid members as possible are struck by the high number of
Wakes of Destruction, especially since anyone being struck twice can result in
the death of several players.

Additionally, the Shadow Realm is very sensitive to error. This part of the
fight phase becomes harder each time a new tank gets sent inside, and towards
the end of the fight it will be more difficult to survive.

11. Mythic Mode

The Mythic mode of the Fel Lord Zakuun encounter is similar in basics
to the Normal/Heroic mode of the encounter, but the strategy required to
execute it is different.

11.1. Differences From Normal/Heroic Mode

Aside from everything dealing more damage and the mobs having more health,
the Mythic version of this encounter introduces a number of changes to
mechanics faced on Normal and Heroic.

First of all, Soul Cleave now no longer only affects Zakuun's tank,
but instead it hits up to 4 additional players located within 5 yards of the
main target. Only the main target is affected by the Cloven Soul
debuff, but all players are Disembodied and sent to the Shadow
Realm.

Secondly, the Latent Energy debuff that is applied after soaking a
Rumbling Fissure does not fade on its own. The only way for it to be
removed is for the affected player to be sent into the Shadow Realm (so, hit by
Soul Cleave) and to survive there.

Another important addition is the Exhausted Soul debuff, which is
applied to any players who exit the Shadow Realm, provided that they had been
affected by Latent Energy when entering it. Exhausted Soul prevents the
affected player from soaking a Rumbling Fissure for 2.5 minutes.

Given the Mythic raid size of 20 players, each Rumbling Fissure
wave consists of 5 Fissures.

There are two additional changes. The fight has a much tighter enrage timer
of 5 minutes and 30 seconds, and whenever Zakuun casts Cavitation
during Phases Two and Three, he summons 8 Wakes of Destruction, up from
4.

11.2. Strategy

The strategy for the Fel Lord Zakuun encounter does have a number of
new changes in Mythic mode, compared to the Normal/Heroic strategies.

The main challenge of the fight is having a proper strategy for soaking all
the Rumbling Fissures and clearing the Latent Energy debuffs of
the players who soak these fissures. For this purpose, you should create
four groups consisting of 4 raid members each (plus a tank per group, with the
raid's two tanks alternating this task. These groups will be used to soak the
first, second, third, and fourth waves of Rumbling Fissures (the tanks
will not soak).

The entire raid should be stacked up roughly 30 yards from the boss, and
relatively close to the entrance. From this position, raid members affected by
Befouled move out to get healed and explode as usual. Additionally,
whenever Rumbling Fissures is cast, the group assigned to soak them
(excluding the tank) moves out to soak 4 of the 5 Fissures, leaving up the one
closest to the entrance. Right after this, the boss will cast
Soul Cleave, and the same players who had soaked Rumbling Fissures, and
who are not afflicted with Latent Energy, must stack in front of the
boss with the tank, and be sent into the Shadow Realm.

Once inside, everyone inside must find a safe spot to unleash
Wakes of Destruction from, since Cavitation is triggered from
the location of the raid members exiting the Shadow Realm.

For the first group, we recommend stacking up in one corner of the room and
using all immunities as needed not to get struck by anything. This minimises
the amount of Wakes of Destruction and Rings of Destruction for
subsequent groups to avoid.

Group two should move to another spot on the same wall, but spread out
slightly so as to not get hit by any of the Wakes of Destruction that
are immediately released. They must only be in a safe spot from the Wakes of
others for roughly a second, before they are safely transitioned into the main
phase again.

This process repeats for groups three and four, after which time the debuff
of the first group should have expired, and the cycle repeats. Ideally, though,
the boss should have been pushed past 30% health before this time arrives,
preventing him from using Soul Cleave any more times.

For Seed of Destruction in Phase Two, we recommend using this WeakAura. Additionally, along the
back of the room, 5 world markers should be placed around 8 yards from each
other. The markers should be, in any order, Star, Circle, Diamond, Triangle,
Moon. The WeakAura displays an icon on the screen of each player targeted by
Seed of Destruction that corresponds to one of those world markers. They must
react quickly and get to their assigned marker before the debuff expires.

The rest of the raid must then ensure that none of the many unleashed
Wakes of Destruction strike any active Fel Crystals. This is
particularly difficult during the Enrage phase, as the raid
damage here will be extremely high, on top of raid members having to soak the
Wakes of Destruction. Immunities, healing cooldowns, and personal cooldowns
should be saved to scramble through this final part of the fight.

On Mythic mode, we recommend using
Heroism/Bloodlust/Time Warp when the boss reaches
30%. We also recommend saving all DPS cooldowns and Legendary Rings for this
point in the fight, despite lost usages of those cooldowns in the fight as a
whole due to this.

DPS players should use their Legendary Ring together with all 2-minute DPS
cooldowns, notably in the start of the fight, and when the
Enrage phase begins at 30%.

Healers should use their Legendary Rings during the first Phase Two, for the
Seed of Destruction and subsequent soaking, as well as for the
Enrage phase.

Tanks should use their Legendary Rings in the final Enrage
phase, as they will both be taking equal, heavy damage at this point in the
fight.

12. Loot

In this section, you will find the loot table for Fel Lord Zakuun. The section is
divided in 3 subsections: armor, weapons, and the rest (neck, back, finger, and trinket items).

13. Concluding Remarks

This concludes our raid guide for Fel Lord Zakuun. We hope you have
found it helpful. Please do not hesitate to post any feedback you may have on
our forums.

14. Changelog

16 Aug. 2015: Added Mythic mode strategy.

12 Aug. 2015: Added link to LFR guide.

03 Aug. 2015: Updated the Phase Three section to correctly reflect the fight mechanics used, and slightly tweaked the strategy for Phase One.

24 Jun. 2015: Fixed a few issues with the guide, mostly related to the Shadow Realm. Also clarified that it is impossible to prevent at least one Fel Crystal from spawning each time Rumbling Fissures are created.